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Following

Once a Season

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Holt: You're looking at a suspension, maybe worse. Unless you can track down Doug Judy and recover those diamonds.
Jake: Can they wait twelve months? I usually run into him about once a year.
— Brooklyn Nine-Nine

A recurring story element is used as a form of tradition within a show each season. This doesn't necessarily mean it is a Recycled Script, as more often than not the only similarity is the subject. The story itself can go in many different directions. At other times it can just be a Day in the Limelight, focusing on a specific character who normally doesn't get that much attention in the regular episodes. A sister trope to Once an Episode.

It should be made very clear that this isn't about a specific Myth Arc that is scattered at different parts of the season. Usually this episode's schedule is very consistent, especially if it is set around Sweeps. In some cases fans may note that there might be a set-up for such a character to appear once a season, only for the consistency to jump around to multiple seasons between appearances.

Much of the time it ends up as a Formula-Breaking Episode.

Compare Mandatory Line, A Day in the Limelight, Once an Episode, Milestone Celebration, as well as any number of the holiday tropes such as Christmas Episode and Halloween Episode.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Digimon:
    • Once a season you will have at least one main character with a sibling complex: Adventure has Yamato (as well as Taichi), 02 has Ken, Tamers has Jenrya, Frontier has Koji, Savers has Tohma (and Masaru), and Xros Wars has Nene.
    • With one exception, a Leomon (or something in its evolutionary line) will be a recurring character and then die Once A Season.
    • The main character's partner receiving a Deadly Upgrade before his proper Next Tier Powerup. In the first two seasons it's Skullgreymonnote , Megidramon from Tamers, and Shinegreymon Ruin Mode from Savers. Frontier has a debatable case with Burninggreymon, which was initially out of Takuya's control before becoming a proper upgrade.
  • The Pokémon: The Series
    • Pikachu frying a girl's bike in the first three sagas.
    • Ash and crossdressing.
    • Most series have at least episode focusing on the region's Trainer's School.
    • With the exception of the Advanced Generation saga which had none and the Original Series which had two, a projection of a Legendary Pokémon would appear to Ash and/or his friends at the beginning of that saga (Ho-Oh in Kanto, Suicune in Johto, Mesprit in Sinnoh, Zekrom in Unova).
    • Ash always ends up losing the Pokémon tournament at the end of the series. He lost twice and won once in the Original Series, since it featured three different leagues.
    • The first movie of each generation would feature the trio of fully evolved starter Pokémon, the exception to this rule being Pokémon 3 in Johto and Hoenn's Pokémon: Jirachi: Wish Maker.
    • The female Deuteragonist of a previous saga would show up as a Guest-Star Party Member to the current group.
    • Except for Johto, Ash receives a new hat, which he'll continue to wear for the rest of that generation's anime series. In addition, every hat he has worn in the TV series has been stolen by a mischievous Pokémon at least once, with the plot of that episode being a chase to get it back.
    • Main characters Pokémon would become Brainwashed and Crazy at least once.
  • Pretty Cure, for its first five seasons, had a number of traditions: infighting in episode 8, new mascot introduced just before the midseason powerup, new mascot runs away from home shortly after, just to name a few. Most of these were done away with along with the Art Shift and the name-based mascot sentence enders come Fresh Pretty Cure!.
    • Ever since Tsubomi threw herself airborne in a panic after transforming at the start of HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, it's been a tradition for the first Cure to do the same exact thing
    • Starting with Maho Girls Pretty Cure!, the fairy mascot got a chance to turn into a Cure of their own during the final few episodes. Cure Mofurun and Cure Pekorin were able to do it, and Harry was implied to be one of the many people that got a Cure powerup in the final battle.
  • The anime adaptation of Slayers has one crossdressing episode every season, and it's always episode 17. This is due to the first series' Idiosyncratic Episode Naming. Episode 17 was the "Q" episode (thus making a "queer" implication), and the tradition stuck until Evolution-R. That season did something else for the "Q" episode.
  • Almost every major arc of One Piece will end with the main protagonists and their allies from said arc throwing a huge party, to celebrate their victory over the Arc Villain. Hell, the Skypiea arc even had two of those, one of which was at the halfway point of the arc. Pretty often, this was then followed by the Straw Hats having to leave in a hurry for one reason or another (the residents chase them out, the Marines are coming, etc.).
  • With the exception of Macross 7, each TV series in Macross will have a major character die due to the one they love:
    • Super Dimension Fortress Macross has Roy being severely wounded during combat, but instead of going to medbay he goes to Claudia's room as he promised, and dies on her couch.
    • Macross Frontier has Mikhail die while protecting Klan shortly after he admits his love to her.
    • Macross Delta has Messer coming back to fight in order to protect Kaname after being Reassigned to Antarctica, which ends with him getting killed when his cockpit takes a direct hit during a duel.
  • Every season of the Jojos Bizarre Adventure anime will, as the final episode draws near, have the main villain use his Stand to interrupt the opening:
    • Starting with "DIO's World (3)", the Stardust Crusaders anime has DIO stop time as Star Platinum shatters the screen and walk behind Jotaro to his usual spot. As time resumes, the two trade blows, shouting their Stand Cries.
    • In Episode 36 of the Diamond is Unbreakable anime, Kira, in his black-and-white-haired Kosaku Kawajiri appearance, uses Bites The Dust to rewind the OP back to the scene where Kira blows up the title. As he does so, the main cast, who normally are turned away from Kira, turn as one to look at him angrily.
    • Starting with Episode 34 of the Golden Wind anime, we see the interval between the blood drops in the OP's normal version: Diavolo activates King Crimson, and uses Epitaph to predict Giorno's attack in the future, all the while monologuing in Italian about how the heroes are doomed to fall before him. Then, as a first time, during the beginning of Diavolo's monologue, Giorno's newly acquired Gold Experience Requiem undoes the effect of King Crimson.

    Comic Books 

    Comic Strips 
  • The newspaper comic Curtis is renowned for its bizarre and over-the-top Kwanzaa stories, which are often the most entertaining comics he does. (There seemed to be none in 2013, though, as the boys dealt with a crazy babysitter while their parents went to a holiday party.)
  • Garfield always had birthday strips, mostly about how much Garfield dreads them.
  • Several recurring jokes on Peanuts occurred once a year. These included Lucy pulling away the football when Charlie Brown tries to kick it, Linus awaiting the Great Pumpkin, and Schroder celebrating Beethoven's birthday. There were also strips commemorating D-Day, and Snoopy going to drink root beers with Bill Mauldin every Memorial Day (based on Charles Schultz's real-life ritual with Mauldin, a cartoonist famous for his satirical cartoons on military life during WWII).
  • About once a year, Beetle Bailey does the gag where the officers receives a written order from the general, with one obvious spelling error that changes the meaning completely. It always end with the officers following out the order exactly the way it was written, because they'd rather look like idiots than to tell the general that he did a mistake.

    Fan Works 
  • In Cast Swap, Chris has something taken from him in each Total Drama season. In order Topher steals his phone in ROTI, Duncan steals his wallet in All-Stars, and Scott steals both in Pahkitew Island.
  • In The Owl and The Frog, each story arc has a vignette chapter containing at least five short stories. Arc 1 has "Chapter 6: Summer Stories" (5), Arc 2 "Chapter 19: What's Anne Been Up To?" (6), Arc 3 has "Chapter 28: Newtopian News" (7) and Arc 4 has "Chapter 36: Here, There and Elsewhere" (9). There's also the one-shot "Three New Students" (3).
  • In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, the yearly Holiday Specials all include a snippet starring Volkner and Flint, with the latter trying to cheer up the former during his Christmas funk by setting up the "Three Christmas Ghosts" act.

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • 24:
    • Around episode eight, the Big Nasty Thing That's Going On turns out to be a small portion of the Big Bad's overarching plan.
    • And around episode 14, that Big Bad is stopped and revealed in a side plot to be actually either The Dragon of the Evil Overlord, or a free or ancillary agent whose operation was actually damaging the Evil Overlord's one.
    • On a more meta level, since as early as Season 1, 24 has managed to predict an important item (usually a failure) of US foreign politics or military operations that actually takes place next year or a couple of years later in real life: the first African-American President in Season 1 (way before its time); the US government blaming terrorist attacks on Middle-East countries to start a war for oil in Season 2; tortured or neglected agents defecting to the other side in Season 3; excessive demonization of arabs in the public media in Season 4; the US getting involved in the (mis)relationship between "mother Russia" and her annexed territories Season 5 (not to count revealing the President as the evil behind actually trying to start a war). Seasons 7 and 8 being the most recent ones it is not clear yet what 24 is going to end having predicted but it may be related to Sarah Palin as the first female President or American firms testing bioweapons in African countries (S7), or the permanent damage that former Presidents have over the Office (S8).
    • In almost every season, someone important dies at 02:00 AM, or during the episode running that hour:
      • Season 1: former CTU District Manager Richard Walsh hands evidence to Jack and dies right before the hour (setting part of the tone of the series).
      • Season 2: Jonathan Wallace (the villain who carried the Cyprus Audio). Also, Jack "dies" at the end of the hour.
      • Season 3: Nina Myers dies at the end of the hour, at the hands of Jack.
      • Season 4: Paul Raines.
      • Season 6: Milo Pressman, feigning being the director of CTU to protect its personnel from a raid, dies during the hour.
      • Season 7: Tony Almeida kills Larry Moss shortly before the hour.
      • Season 8: Marcos Al-Zacar is remotely detonated near the end of the hour.
    • Beginning with the second season this actually counts for the 7:00 A.M. hour as well.
    • At one point or another every season Jack ends up either being framed or breaking protocol (sometimes both!) and being on run from the law for a few episodes and forcing him to use more limited resources while he tries to stop whatever threat is going on. Season 8 makes him part of the Big Bad Ensemble when he starts using more extremist methods to take out the other antagonists of the season, giving both sides a more justified reason for trying to stop him.
    • Every season barring the fourth has an episode (occasionally two) where the show's ticking clock is silenced. More often than not this is for a character death, but it can occasionally be for a dramatic moment as well, such as George Mason putting Tony in charge in CTU in Season 2, Jack forcing himself to leave Audrey in Season 6, or Jack and Tony burying Renee Walker alive in Season 7.
  • 30 Rock has Dennis Duffy (self-diagnosed sex addict, former beeper mogul and ex-Subway Hero), Devon Banks and Colleen Donaghy appear once a season.
  • The Apprentice: The UK edition will feature:
    • A catering task
    • A task where the teams have to buy a list of items at the lowest price possible
    • A task to create an advert
    • A round of interviews. In recent episodes, these take place in the final, not the semi-final
    • At least one candidate gets fired "with regret"
    • Unless a candidate quits the show of their own accord or has to leave for some other reason, at least one episode will feature a 'surprise' second firing.
  • Are You Afraid of the Dark? had one tale every season visiting Sardo's Magic Store.
  • There are many recurring elements in the first five seasons of Arrow, which feature dual narratives of the past and present, symbolizing the fact that Oliver Queen hasn't truly managed to escape from the five dark years before he returns home to Starling City. All of these are gone come season 6, which deemphasizes Oliver's past in favor of the present and future and also happens to be the point when the flashbacks stop appearing.
    • From season 1 to 3, a midseason episode inverts the show's usual narrative strategy by focusing heavily on the flashback narrative of Oliver's five years away from home, and only briefly touching upon the present-day narrative. These episodes have a similar naming structure (starting with The followed by one word). This is briefly touched upon in the season 7 midseason episode "Star City 2040", which discards the present-day plot in favor of focusing on a different narrative...20 years into the future.
    • From seasons 1 to 5, there is one episode which begins with Oliver's POV of running through wilderness. For the first four seasons, it was the pilot/season premiere, while in the fifth season, it was the series' 100th episode, part of a four-series crossover event. This element appears for the final time in season 8's premiere, an abridged version of season 1 set on Earth-2.
    • There is a major character's death each season: Tommy Merlyn in Season 1, Moira Queen in Season 2, Laurel Lance in Season 4, Malcolm Merlyn in Season 5, Quentin Lance in Season 6, Oliver Queen in Season 8. Seasons 3 and 7 are somewhat of anomalies in this regard - The former begins with the death of Sara Lance, an important recurring character from the previous season but not a series regular.note  While the latter includes the death of both Ricardo Diaz and Emiko Queen. note 
    • Seasons 1 to 5 end with Oliver killing the Big Bad by impaling him, either with an arrow or sword. Seasons 2 and 5 play with this - Oliver spares the life of Big Bad Slade Wilson in the present-day, but in the flashback narrative, he does stab Slade with an arrow, with the intent of killing him, while Season 5's Big Bad Adrian Chase gets shot by Oliver with an arrow shortly before he dies by a self-inflicted gunshot.
    • Up to season 7, the penultimate episodes each season are all named after a Bruce Springsteen song: "Darkness on the Edge of Town", "Streets of Fire", "This Is Your Sword", "Lost in the Flood", "Missing", "The Ties That Bind", and "Living Proof". The trend is broken in the final season, where Executive Meddling named the penultimate episode "Green Arrow and the Canaries", after a failed spin-off that it was supposed to launch, though the episode namedrops the Springsteen song "Livin' In The Future" (according to the creators, it was the original title for the episode before the aforementioned meddling changed it).
  • BattleBots: From the ABC revival and onward, one team comes over from the UK, only to have their bot get annihilated during their first battle:
    • ABC Season 1: Warhead is soundly defeated by Bite Force and then by Stinger.
    • ABC Season 2: The Creepy Crawlies are shredded to pieces by Son of Whyachi.
    • Discovery Channel Season 1: Vanquish is literally ripped in two by Icewave.
  • The Big Bang Theory has at least one episode a season where the guys dress up in costumes, sometimes coordinated costumes as well (and no, it's not always a Halloween Episode). It's enough of a tradition that an image of the guys is usually a centerpiece on the DVD inserts. The most epic one has to be where they all dress up (including Penny and her current boyfriend Zach) as the Justice League for a New Years party. Season six threw off the curve by having three, one at Halloween with no real theme, one with the guys as Star Trek: The Next Generation characters going to comic con and, surprisingly, one with the girls getting Disney Princess makeovers.
    • There is also so far one episode a season that includes Penny and/or Sheldon singing "Soft Kitty," a song his mom would sing for him when he was sick as a child. In the fifth season his Mom sang it to him herself.
    • Starting in the third season there is at least one appearance by Wil Wheaton and Sheldon's rivalry with him.
    • Early in the first season Sheldon's mom Mary came to visit, and mid second season Leonard's mom Beverly did the same. While it has sometimes been sporadic (Mary didn't show up in the second season and Beverly in the fourth) both have made fairly regular appearances.
  • In the American Big Brother:
    • The first head of household competition is almost always endurance or physical competition of some kind.
    • Majority Rules is commonly played within the first one or two weeks; explainable because the competition works best when there are about ten people.
    • The head of household always receives a letter from home.
    • Sometimes; a movie is shown to winners of a luxury competition.
    • A shuffleboard type challenge is often played at one point.
    • Sometimes, an arcade-like challenge is played.
    • A challenge involving copious amounts of liquid or food is often played at one point.
    • A food/Luxury competition is often ignored whenever the challenge is either an Endurance or a long-task.
    • A veto competition where Otev (Or a previously evicted houseguest) asks houseguests to pick up an object with the answer to their question and bring it to them.
    • A luxury or shopping spree challenge.
    • Double Eliminations
    • A "Before or after" competition.
      • A "True or false" competition similar to that.
    • A visit from someone outside the house.
    • Face morphing challenges
    • The final three Head of Household competition is always played in three parts. The first part is always endurance, the second part is always a puzzle involving the order of houseguests' eliminations or the head of households, the third part is always asking questions about what the jurors would say.
  • Boardwalk Empire: Once every season thus far Nucky Thompson has narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.
  • Each season of The Bob Newhart Show had a Christmas Episode. While it may not seem like a big deal now, back then it was rare for TV shows to have more than one Christmas episode.
  • Bonanza: Starting with Season 12, a crooked businessman named Bradley Meredith (Lorene Greene in a dual role) came to Virginia City to cause trouble, most notably for the Cartwrights and his prime target, Ben. The first installment came in 1971's "A Deck of Aces." The second installment in what was to be an annual storyline, "One Ace Too Many," aired in the spring of 1972. A third installment involving Meredith's latest scheme to cash in on the Cartwright's name, was planned for the spring of 1973, but "Bonanza' was canceled before the script was completed.
  • The Brady Bunch: Starting with Season 3, the Bradys went on vacation to some far-out destination. The 1971-1972 season opener was set at Grand Canyon, while the summer of 1972 saw the family to to Hawaii (and was eventually aired as the fourth-season opener). In the fall of 1973, during the fifth and final year, the Bradys went to King's Amusement Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. And yes, Alice came along for each of these trips.
  • With the exception of Season 4, Breaking Bad's Wendy has played a small but crucial role once every season.
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine
    • Each season has an annual Halloween contest between Captain Holt and Peralta regarding whether the latter can steal a valued item from the former, with each episode going through Sequel Escalation where more and more characters aside from the two keeping trying to win the bet.
    • Doug Judy makes an appearance once per season, usually involving him offering info and/or need protection from a dangerous criminal.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer had "Buffy's Birthday" episodes, where something always crashed her party. In the third season it seemed like Spike and Ethan Rayne were going to make yearly visits, but Spike became a cast member and Ethan wasn't seen after Season 4.
    • Spike lampshades how something terrible happens on Buffy's birthday in the season six episode.
    • Oh, yeah, and every season has a minimum of one attempt to destroy the world. This would often be the Season Finale, but sometimes it would come in the middle of the season, in which case it was rarely taken that seriously.
    • The producers also commented that they worked hard to give Giles one line per season that sounds absolutely crazy out of context, and to lampshade its craziness. Their personal favorite was from Season 3's episode "Gingerbread":
      Giles: We need to save Buffy from Hansel and Gretel!
      Cordelia: Now, let's be clear, the brain damage happened before I hit you.
    • Amy Madison made an appearance in human form once per season, except for season 5 (when she was absent) and season 6 (where she made brief appearances over three episodes).
    • There were also the Halloween episodes (which, incidentally, all occurred in even-numbered seasons), where someone always claims that it's the one night the supernatural takes off... and yet some aspect of the supernatural didn't get the memo. Presumably on the odd-numbered seasons evil really did take the day off, otherwise no one in-universe would still believe this.
    • After his departure, Angel would show up for precisely two episodes a season in all but season 6 (when Buffy and Angel were on different networks, who didn't want the shows to be promoting each other.)
  • The Carol Burnett Show: Jim Nabors was the special guest on the very first show. Carol Burnett called him her "good luck charm," and had him back on every season premiere that followed.
  • In every season finale of Charmed, the last shot is the front door of the Halliwell Manor closing, either being magically closed by Prue (seasons 1 and 2), another supernatural being (seasons 3 and 4), Chris (season 5), itself (season 7) or Piper's granddaughter (season 8). The only exception is season 6, the final shot shows the doors of a hospital room closing. Though in the season 6 finale, Chris does magically close the front door. Only this time it happens during the episode (when he throws Darryl out) , and not at the very end. In season 7, it's implied that it's Prue who's closing the door, as the sound of her telekinesis was heard when it closed, and she had helped them with a spell (without being seen) earlier in the episode.
  • Cheers had the yearly "Bar Wars" episodes, in which Cheers and another local bar (Gary's Old Towne Tavern) competed to top each other in practical jokes.
  • Cobra Kai has one episode of each season have a character drop a big F-bomb for one big dramatic reason or another.
    • Season 1: "Cobra Kai Never Dies" has Robby look at a one of Johnny's Cobra Kai flyers and, when asked about it by his criminal friends, he replies, "it's my fuckin' dad."
    • Season 2: In "All In", after Eli/Hawk gets beaten by Samantha and Robby after he tries to beat up Demetri at the mall for posting a negative review of Cobra Kai, Moon confronts him and breaks up with him due to his increasingly hostile actions, but Hawk calls Demetri "a fucking nerd."
    • Season 3: In "Now You're Gonna Pay", Nathaniel shows up, bloody and bruised, at Samantha's door with the rest of Miyagi-Do saying that Cobra Kai not only stole the money they raised for Miguel's operation but that "they kicked the fucking shit out of me."
    • Season 4 bucks the trend by having two F-bombs.
      • In "Match Point", Johnny tells a bartender to "shut the fuck up" when he asks for Johnny and Daniel to stop yelling at each other.
      • In "The Fall", when Eli/Hawk, still depressed after his mohawk gets shaved off by Robby and Kyler, gets a pep talk from Moon about how he shaped up since Cobra Kai turned him into a bully, he tells Daniel he knows who he is now: "the guy who's gonna win the whole fucking thing." And he does.
  • Community:
    • A Halloween and Christmas episode in all three seasons.
    • Also paintball, albeit the third season only had paintball in a brief flashback.
    • Beginning with the second season, there's an annual episode that's done in the style of a documentary filmed by Abed.
  • Deadliest Catch shows the rituals that the Northwestern does at the start and end of every crab season: At the start, someone bites the head off a herring; at the end, the last pot is hauled in with a flaming hook. Technically twice per TV season, since each TV season shows both king crab and opilio crab seasons, but it's once per crab season.
  • Dexter has the title character get into a serious car accident in almost every season. It's lampshaded or parodied a few times in later seasons; at one point, he intentionally backs into a dumpster in order to get close to a potential kill who runs a garage.
  • The Defenders (2017): The Netflix shows of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have made it a standard rule to have a Hallway Fight at least once per season. Jessica Jones (2015) season 2 is the only exception. True to form, The Defenders crossover sees the team ultimately all cross paths when fighting off members of the Hand in a corridor of Midland Circle.
    • They also typically feature support groups of some kind. Jessica Jones (2015) season 1 has a support group for Kilgrave's victims, while season 2 has Jessica take anger management class as a result of assaulting Pryce Cheng. Luke Cage (2016) season 1 has Luke sitting in a prison support group run by his future girlfriend Reva, who unbeknownst to Luke is using the sessions to select prisoners for experimentation. Lastly, The Punisher (2017) has Frank Castle's old army buddy Curtis Hoyle running a support group for veterans with PTSD.
  • Doctor Who:
  • Doogie Howser, M.D.: Given that Doogie’s young age is such an important factor in the series, his birthday (September 21) was always tied into the plot of every season premiere to pave the way into the next chapter of his life as a teenage doctor.
    • Because Season 4 aired many episodes Out of Order, the initial “Doogie’s birthday” episode for the season was delayed until the next week (“Look Ma, No Pants”), in order to make room for the "Very Special Episode” season premiere, which focused on the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.
    • The “annual father-son fishing trip” episode theme was also repeated, each with a different twist, every season.
  • The Dukes of Hazzard: At different points of the season starting in Season 2, Hughie Hogg (Jeff Altman as Boss Hogg's even more crooked and unethical nephew) made annual appearances. Usually but not always, the plot involved Hogg coming up with a sure-fire scheme to make money for Boss, and Boss becoming wary but going along when Hughie said that he would also find a way to pass the blame onto the Duke boys; however, the scheme always had the ulterior motive of ruining Boss. It would be up to Bo and Luke to find enough evidence to run Hughie and his cronies out of town.
  • In Everybody Loves Raymond, the recurring joke about the only meal Debra Barone could cook with competence - lemon chicken - was the Once A Series event. For instance, in a flashback to their courtship, it was the first dinner she cooked for Ray; at the time he expressed a wish to eat it every night.
  • The Flash:
    • Every season thus far has has an episode which involves a time-traveler revisiting the night of Nora Allen's murder at the hands of Eobard Thawne. In Season 1, Barry travels back and converses with his mother before she dies. In Season 2 he travels back and saves his mother. In Season 3, Thawne travels back with Barry's consent and undoes Barry's interference in order to restore the timeline. And it's a Foregone Conclusion that Barry will make at least one more trip back to the events of the night.
    • While Season 1 is saturated with crossovers with sister show Arrow, the last (or second-to last) episode before winter break is an annual tradition that is kept throughout both shows' (and eventually the rest of the programs in the Arrowverse) later seasons.
    • A different Harrison Wells will join the team for every season. Season 1 is The Mentor to the team although he's an impostor and also that season's Big Bad, Season 2 has Jerk with a Heart of Gold Mad Scientist "Harry", 3 had con-artist H.R., 5 had Great Detective Sherloque, 6 has Adventure Archaeologist later Pariah Nash. Harry actually returned for an extended tenure for Season 4, and at the end he Took a Level in Kindness at the cost of his intellect. And Cisco will always be at odds with them, starting especially with Harry.
  • Frasier:
    • Several of the characters make seasonal guest appearances, including his agent Bebe, his ex-wife Lilith, and their son Frederick.
    • Like holiday episodes, the Seabees (Seattle Broadcast Awards) by definition came up only once a year.
  • Friends:
    • After appearing several times during the first three seasons, Janice still appears once each of the subsequent seasons.
    • Every season, barring the second, has an annual Thanksgiving Episode.
    • Almost every season has an episode where Chandler starts smoking again, though it never sticks, and sometimes only lasts for a quick gag.
  • In exactly one episode in each season of Fringe (including the fifth, which takes place in 2036), the protagonists visit Edward Markham (one of Peter's "contacts") in search of important information.
  • Fuller House:
    • While there are only two seasons of the show so far, each one has featured one fourth wall-breaking reference to Michelle's absence:
      • Season 1, Episode 1 ("Our Very First Show, Again"): Stephanie asks where her sister is. Danny says that she's "busy in New York, running her fashion empire." This is followed by the whole cast turning to the camera for several seconds, to uproarious laughter and cheering.
      • Season 2, Episode 6 ("Fuller Thanksgiving"): D.J. says grace before the family eats dinner, saying that they miss Michelle and hope she'll be with them next year, followed by Jesse peaking out from the group and saying to the camera, "come, it'll be fun," to more cheers and laughter.
      • Season 5 has Danny visit DJ, Steph, and Kimmy and comment that it feels good to have three daughters again.
    • Also, one episode in each season has been called "Ramona's Not-So-Epic X". In Season 1, it was "Ramona's Not-So-Epic Party". In Season 2, it was "Ramona's Not-So-Epic First Kiss".
  • While not quite a seasonal basis, Hogan's Heroes frequently had something of an "evil twin" episode, in which, a doppelganger of a character would be introduced to the story, the Heroes use this to their advantage by kidnapping the doppelganger, having the original character masquerade as the doppelganger to thwart the latest Nazi war effort.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • In every season, save the seventh, at least one monarch or claimant dies, causing a major political upheaval. In the first season it's Viserys Targaryen and Robert Baratheon, in the second season Renly Baratheon and Xaro Xhoan Daxos, in the third season Robb Stark, in the fourth season Joffrey Baratheon, in the fifth season Mance Rayder and Stannis Baratheon, in the sixth season Balon Greyjoy and Tommen Baratheon, and in the eighth season the Night King, Euron Greyjoynote , Cersei Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen. The seventh season is unique as no kings die, though for the first time two kings effectively surrender their sovereign status, with Jon Snow pledging to Daenerys and Euron Greyjoy pledging to Cersei.
    • The White Walkers have appeared in one major set piece in every season: "Winter is Coming" (S1), "Valar Morghulis" (S2), "Second Sons" (S3), "Oathkeeper" (S4), "Hardhome" (S5), "The Door" (S6), "Beyond the Wall" (S7), and "The Long Night" (S8). Each episode also reveals new information about the White Walkers, "Winter is Coming" revealed they can control the dead, "Valar Morghulis" revealed their physical appearance and that they have an army, "Second Sons" revealed that they can be killed by dragonglass, "Oathkeeper" revealed they can turn infants into new White Walkers, "Hardhome" that they have a leader, the Night King, and can be killed by Valyrian steel, "The Door" that the Night King has greenseeing and seismic abilities, "Beyond the Wall" that killing a White Walker also disables all of the dead they raised, and "The Long Night" that they are immune to dragon fire.
    • Every season includes at least one scene that reveals new information from the books that, due to being told from the limited perspective of point-of-view characters, were unable to portray or could only hint at. The first season confirms that Renly and Loras are in a homosexual relationship, the second season reveals how Melisandre and Stannis conceived a shadow assassin, and that Joffrey sent Mandon Moore to kill Tyrion, the third season confirms that Ramsay castrated Theon, the fourth season reveals that Craster's sons are turned into new White Walkers, the fifth season reveals the massacre at Hardhome and existence of the Night King, the sixth season confirms that Balon Greyjoy was murdered by his brother Euron, that Melisandre is actually centuries old and hides her true form under a magical glamour, and the towering new member of the Kingsguard is in fact Gregor Clegane. From the sixth season onward it remains to be seen if revelations will be included in the books eventually.
    • Every season, save the fourth, has one set piece, often progressively larger, of Daenerys using her dragons for ballistic purposes. In the second season she uses them to incinerate Pyat Pree to escape from the House of the Undying, in the third season she has Drogon kill Kraznys and assist with her sack of Astapor, in the fifth season Drogon rescues her and kills many of the Sons of the Harpy during their assault on Meereen's fighting pits, in the sixth season she uses all three to decimate the Slaver fleet assaulting Meereen, in the seventh season uses Drogon along with her Dothraki cavalry to assault Jaime Lannister's army, and in the eighth season she decimates most of King's Landing with Drogon.
    • Josephine Gillan has briefly appeared as the prostitute Marei once or twice in every season except the first and seventh.
    • Salladhor appeared once a season in the early years. Averted when he doesn't appear after the fourth season.
  • Gilmore Girls: While several Stars Hollow annual arrangements only happened once and were never heard of before or after, such as the season three dance marathon, two occured every season of the original run: the winter festival, and the Civil War reenactment.
  • Gossip Girl has thus far had at least one wedding each season.
    • The last scenes of the season finales always take place a week after the prior events in the episode.
    • Episodes seven and eight of the season always have significant events for Chuck and Blair.
  • Grey's Anatomy has had one episode every season where there is a case involving a penis. This is aslo true for cases involving someone swallowing something.
  • Happy Endings: Every season ends with a wedding. The pilot opens with a wedding as well, but it doesn't go so well.
  • Hell's Kitchen has a few recurring challenges:
    • The signature dish challenge. Each contestant cooks their signature dish to be assessed by Gordon Ramsay. In the first five seasons, this was just an introduction exercise; starting in season 6, it's a challenge with a reward and punishment.
    • The blind taste test, in which the contestants are given bindfolds and headphones, and have to identify a variety of foods by taste alone.
    • Taste It Now Make It, in which Ramsay gives the contestants a dish and they have to reproduce it from taste and appearance.
    • The catering challenge, in which each contestant has to make lunch for 80 or 100 guests, occasionally with a theme to the dishes. The guests all have some important factor in common, but the cooks are not told about this until they arrive.
    • Making breakfast, lunch, or in one case dinner for a large group. This is functionally a regular food service, but with simpler meals so that the cooks can work as a team and actually finish a service.
    • For one dinner service, the restaurant will host a special event; the challenge that week is to come up with dishes for said event.
    • Since season 4, there has been a Family Night, with a children's menu (and usually a petting zoo will be present). Ramsay's family always attends this night, and God help you if you screw up their order.
    • For another service, Ramsay will change up the menu. Usually, that week's challenge will be to come up with fine dining dishes that fit the new theme.
    • At some point, a chef from each team will spend a service as a waiter.
    • In the last dinner service before the teams are merged, the normal menu is set aside and each team sets their own menu. More often than not, the winning team keeps things simple, while the losers try to get ambitious and fly too close to the sun.
    • In the second-last dinner service, each of the final three contestants takes a turn running the pass while the sous chefs sabotage some of their dishes to test the contestants' quality control abilities. (In the first season, this was a separate challenge given to the final two only, and Michael sabotages his risotto just to mess with Ralph. Ramsay allowed this, thinking it would be an interesting test of Ralph's skills, and decided to make it a full part of the competition).
    • Hopefully not intentional, but at least one person will be injured or have health problems each season. They often recover, but several contestants have had to leave the show because of injuries.
  • House:
    • It often towards the end of the season (if not the Season Finale) has some sort of hallucination episode, sort of started by the "Three Stories" episode in the first season that had House using hypothetical situations to better understand a few medical dilemmas.
    • One antagonist per season. Vogler, Tritter and Amber all play this role, as does Stacey's husband. Amber occupies the position for two seasons in a row, in fact.
    • Several seasons feature an In Medias Res episode near the end of the season (seasons 4's "House's Head", season 6's "Help Me" and season 7's "Moving On").
  • In every season of House of Cards (US) at least one prominent character is murdered by the Underwoods or their associates. In season one it's Peter Russo, in season two Zoe Barnes, in season three Rachel Posner, in season four Lucas Goodwin (in an altercation that also causes the death of Edward Meechum), in season five Tom Yates and LeAnn Harvey, and in season six Cathy Durant, Tom Hammerschmidt, Jane Davis, and Doug Stamper.
  • In every season of Insomniac with Dave Attell, Dave would visit New York City for the season finale, and end with returning to his apartment.
  • Kirby Buckets:
    • Every season of the show has featured a cameo from an NBA player. The first season had Chandler Parsons, the second had Zach LaVine, and the third had John Wall.
    • Once per season there is an episode focusing on the holiday of Prank Williams, Jr. day.
    • "The Brads", a group of preppy kids from the other side of town, also get one episode per season.
  • Lab Rats always has an episode every season focusing on Chase's aggressive alternate personality, Spike.
  • Legend of the Seeker seems to be following the example of the novel series it's based on, with a new Wizard's Rule each season.
  • Except for season 4, Legends of Tomorrow always has an episode set in The Wild West each season, where the Legends always meet with Jonah Hex, whose sole seasonal appearance is also only in that episode.
  • The first episode of each season of Legendary tasks the Houses with performing in a "Grand March", a Ballroom tradition in which Houses demonstrate their proficiency in the basic tenets of vogue dancing and Ballroom performance.
  • Lost:
    • In every season premiere, the opening scene is a Tomato Surprise about the character being shown, the character's location, or both:
      • The series itself begins In Medias Res with Jack waking up in the jungle and discovering the plane wreckage
      • Desmond inside the nicely furnished hatch in season 2
      • Juliet and the Others living in a modern town on the island in season 3
      • Hurley being chased by police in the future after being rescued in season 4
      • Daniel Faraday with the DHARMA Initiative in 1977 in season 5
      • Jack meeting Desmond on Flight 815 and the island being underwater in the afterlife in season 6
    • In every season finale, something pivotal to that season blows up:
      • The hatch door and the raft in season 1
      • The hatch (Swan station) itself in season 2
      • Many of the Others when they attack the beach in season 3
      • The freighter in season 4
      • The hydrogen bomb in season 5
      • Parts of the entire fricking island in season 6, though that was more of an implosion
    • Additional "once a years":
      • Since season 2, at least one episode each season is one long flashback (usually with a frame story). These are "The Other 48 Days" (season 2), "Flashes Before Your Eyes" (season 3), "Meet Kevin Johnson" (season 4), "316" and "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" (season 5), and "Ab Aeterno", "Happily Ever After" (which flashes sideways instead of back) and "Across the Sea" (which ditches the frame story and features only one starring character, but played by a different actor) (season 6).
      • One member of the original cast has died each season. These are Boone (season 1), Shannon (season 2), Charlie (season 3), Michael (season 4), Locke (season 5), and Jack, Sun, Jin, Sayid (twice), the Man in Black note  and, technically, everyone (season 6).
      • Benjamin Linus gets the snot kicked out of him once each season he appears in. Characters who get the honors of beating his face in are Sayid (season 2), Jack (season 3), Sawyer (season 4), Desmond (season 5), Desmond again (season 6 but in the sideways verse, and not out of malicious intent). Hilariously, it at least partially provokes his "island awakening", which for most of the other characters is caused by reliving an emotionally meaningful event.
  • Lucifer (2016): The season premieres for seasons two through five open with a scene of Lucifer crossing paths with petty criminal Lee Garner a.k.a Mr. "Said Out Bitch". The fifth season breaks from the formula as the character appears throughout the episode as he and Lucifer investigate his murder, he also makes an appearance in the fifth season finale which reveals he became the first person to break his Hell loop and escape to Heaven.
  • M*A*S*H:
    • Before Cerebus Syndrome plagued the series during its later seasons, the producers tried to have one Darker and Edgier episode each season; after a couple of seasons, they also decided to also have an episode or two a season that eliminated the laugh track altogether.
    • Following his initial appearance in the Season 2 episode "Radar's Report", Major Sidney Freedman appeared in one episode every season, save for seasons 2 and 5 when he appeared twice.
    • Roughly once a season, there would be a "Letter to Home" episode, in which they would show brief snippets of life at the 4077th, with a Framing Device of one of the main characters (usually Hawkeye in the earlier seasons) writing a letter to a loved one. (Although this has been played with several times. In one case, the Framing Device was an official report Radar was filing, and in another it was a will that Hawkeye was writing while on a dangerous assignment. As well, another episode featured the entire cast writing letters to a class of schoolchildren.)
  • From the second season onwards, The Mentalist has at least one episode per go focusing on the Visualize Cult, twice coinciding with the Myth Arc.
    • Also, four out of five seasons have Jane coming back to the CBI after having quit or losing his job for whatever (often the same) reason.
  • Merlin has at least one tournament. Someone usually tries to sabotage it to kill Arthur or in the past, Uther.
    • Merlin actually gets credit for something.
  • Monk's second season introduced his annoying neighbor Kevin Dorfman, who would pop up once season afterwards to help Monk out. He notably didn't make an appearance in season 6, so in season 7 he showed up twice: Once in a brief cameo during the 100th episode, and again properly near the end of the season where he then wound up being the murder victim of the episode.
  • Murdoch Mysteries has a regular "Agent Myers" episode. In the season 13 Clip Show "The Trial of Terrance Myers", Agent Baker specifically says that Myers and Murdoch have crossed paths on twelve previous occasions.
  • NCIS:
    • Tony gets framed for a homicide once a season. He is smart enough to notice and lampshade it, but not enough to prevent it.
    • Gibbs builds and (somehow) disposes of a boat in his basement once a season.
    • Since season 7, one fall episode will involve CGIS Agent Abigail Borin (Diane Neal).
  • The O.C. had the annual Christmukkah episode.
  • In Once Upon a Time it's common that the first shot of a season or midseason opening is of a galloping horse, and you have to wait for a bit to see who is riding it. The series itself started with such a scene.
  • Power Rangers has only one instance where a Sixth Ranger doesn't show up in a season (season three, although that includes an entire ranger team stepping in for a Story Arc). They were so dedicated to the Sixth Ranger trope they created the American Titanium Ranger for Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue when the Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV original didn't have one.
    • As well as the Mid-Season Upgrade, the Reunion Show (the traditional team-up began in season 7) and the battlizer (began in season 6). The crossover specials didn't always happen (Ninja Storm and RPM, for complicated production reasons). Super Sentai always had a crossover movie though.
  • Red Dwarf has some form of time travel once every season. Since season 3, The Simulants, vicious human-hating cyborgs, would also turn up in every season, save the 8th.
  • The first three season premieres of Revenge have opened with a flash-forward to midseason. They've also all featured the Graysons' Memorial Day charity auction that kicks off the summer in the Hamptons.
  • Roseanne had an annual Halloween episode, which would often parody the tropes of the annual Christmas episodes that were common in other sitcoms of the time.
  • RuPaul's Drag Race has a couple of challenges that crop up at the same time in every season:
    • Historically, the first main challenge has been to make runway looks from unconventional materials, though this has been subverted in more recent seasons.
    • Since Season 2, The Snatch Game, in which contestants impersonate celebrities while playing a mock Match Game, has been a Drag Race standard that manifests when the cast has been thinned to 8-9 queens.
    • The "girl groups challenge", in which queens are split into 2-3 groups and tasked with writing and choreographing a musical performance.
    • The "Rusical", in which queens act in a drag parody of an extant musical, either providing vocals of their own or lip-syncing to pre-recorded tracks.
    • The "ball", in which queens showcase three looks, two brought from home and one made in the Werk Room, that fit an overarching theme.
    • The "makeover challenge", in which queens pair up with strangers and make them over into drag queens, though this has seemingly been retired temporarily due to COVID complications.
    • The penultimate challenge requires the queens to write and perform verses on a "RuMix" of RuPaul's latest single.
  • During the latter half of Sanford and Son, each season had an episode that featured a subplot involved Fred and Lamont's unorthodox method of filing their income taxes, while also exasperating Marvin, their accountant.
  • Scrubs has the episodes where the narration shifted to another character, titled, in each instance, either "His Story" or "Her Story", or, on one occasion where minor characters were used, "Their Story".
    • There was also usually at least one episode with the characters singing a song in one of J.D.'s Imagine Spots (the show often had elaborate musical montages and characters singing in-character, but this was more like a full broadway musical). This culminated into a full Musical Episode where a patient with a brain tumor could only hear them singing.
    • As noted in a few episodes, JD and Elliot typically hook up about once per season before inevitably breaking it off again.
  • During the mid-2000s, Sesame Street had a story each season in which Zoe's pet rock, Rocco, turns up missing, because a wandering chicken finds it, mistakes it for an egg, and tries to hatch it.
  • The Sopranos:
    • One episode per season to showcase Tony's dream sequences.
    • In every season, even seasons where his storyline is not particularly prominent, everything will stop so we can focus on Christopher. Other characters receive episodes featuring them prominently but most of these episodes focus almost solely on Christopher's development or he is at least most central to the storyline:
      • Season 1: "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti"
      • Season 2:" D-Girl" and to a certain extent "Full Leather Jacket"
      • Season 3: Fortunate Son
      • Season 4: This one's the debatable but the season premiere and "The Strong Silent Type" are the prime candidates.
      • Season 5: "Long Term Parking"
      • Season 6 part 1: "The Ride"
      • Season 6 part 2: "Walk Like a Man"
  • Stargate SG-1 has Clip Shows. Not quite every single season, but it seemed that way for a while.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation had yearly visits from Q. (Apparently Gene Roddenberry wanted him to appear three or four times a season, but upon a lackluster second appearance they decided on a simple yearly visit.) They also had the Holodeck Malfunction, which became a tradition for Deep Space Nine and Voyager as well. Lwaxana Troi appeared once a season for nine straight years (once DS9 started she began splitting her annual appearances between the two shows), before the Dominion War pushed her aside.
    • Q notably didn't appear in season 5, so season 6 made up for it by having him appear twice, and also having his sole Deep Space Nine appearance that year.
    • TNG episodes about the painfully socially awkward and profoundly anxious Lt. Barclay almost qualify after his introduction in Season 3, but he didn't get one in Season 5 and instead, he got two Season 6 episodes. One of those two ("Ship in a Bottle") was also the Season 6 Holodeck Malfunction episode and featured some nice Continuity Nods for both Season 2's Holodeck Malfunction episode ("Elementary, Dear Data", in which a Professor Moriarty hologram becomes self-aware) and Barclay (who was not on board the Enterprise during the events of Season 2, and whose introductory episode was about his holodeck addiction).
    • Once they showed up in the second season of TNG, the Borg made an appearance every season for the rest of the show's run, even if they somewhat cheated by using them for Season Finale Cliffhangers a few times.
    • Deep Space Nine's producers allowed Colm "O'Brien" Meaney time off regularly to maintain his film career, so when they did have full access to him, they regularly put his character through the mill, either by having him serve thirty years for murder (albeit All Just a Dream) or have his daughter disappear into a time rift or whatever (also because he was considered the likeable everyman of the cast, so making him suffer was thought to have more impact for the audience). The "O'Brien Must Suffer" episode became a tradition.
      • Deep Space Nine also did a mostly-comedic "Ferengi episode" about once or twice a season.
      • Several seasons of Deep Space Nine also had one visit to the Mirror Universe which generally featured one of the Mirror Ferengi getting killed.
      • Later seasons included at least one episode exploring the antagonistic relationship of Kira and Dukat: "Indiscretion", "Return to Grace" (S4), "Ties of Blood and Water" (S5), "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night" (S6), and "Covenant" (S7).
    • Star Trek: Enterprise had at least one spotlight episode a season for the Andorian Captain Shran and his uneasy friendship with Captain Archer (although he did make a few minor appearances in other episodes). The fourth season, organized into mini-arcs of two-three episodes, had one with Shran in the middle of it.
    • Even Star Trek: The Original Series launched a fairly long-lived one for the entire franchise; The Romulans made appearances once a season through the 3 TOS seasons, both seasons of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and the first two seasons of TNG. The streak was finally broken when they began to play a larger role in the storyarc beginning in season 3.
  • Supernatural:
    • ""Carry On Wayward Son" is always heard every season and has become the show's unofficial theme song. In season 1, it is heard in the recap of the penultimate episode. From seasons 2 to 14, it is heard in the Season Finale recap. In the Grand Finale, it isn't heard in the recap, but rather in the episode itself (named "Carry On" as a tribute), where it gets a Lampshade Hanging.
    • Ever since "The Monster At The End Of This Book", there's also been at least one episode per season devoted to Lampshade Hanging;
    • After he was killed by the Big Bad in season 7, Bobby has made an annual appearance every season from 8 onward to ensure that he still appears in every single season.
  • Some challenges or challenge types have been repeated in Survivor they become a tradition. Examples include:
    • The Car challenge held later in the game; averted by later seasons though.
      • The "Car curse". Whoever wins a car will not win the game.
    • A survivor auction in place of a reward competition
    • An Eat That type of challenge; but these appear to have stopped after China.
    • Family visits or a Letters From Home challenge
    • The penultimate immunity challenge is sometimes a composite challenge consisting of obstacles from previous challenges in the game, or even past seasons.
    • A challenge surrounding trivia about other Survivor contestants that season or opinions about other contestants.
    • The Torch Walk or Rites of Passage as they are often called before the final immunity challenge, wherein the contestants still in the game (Final four or final three) remember the previously evicted players and then burn the torches down while sad music plays. They also have to go on a hike or boat ride full of Scenery Porn. At the end is always the final immunity challenge.
    • The Final immunity Challenge is often an endurance competition. Often it is either physical endurance or willpower.
      • Subverted in a couple seasons. The final immunity challenge in Australian outback was the trivia (To be fair; this was the second season.) Gabon violated the tradition by having the final immunity challenge be stacking cards. Heroes vs. Villains violated this by having the final immunity challenge be a blind maze run to grab immunity. Redemption Island violated this by having the final immunity challenge be a large maze followed by the fourth puzzle in a row for Rob's sake.
    • The final two or three being given a special breakfast on the last day.
    • The final two or three burning down the camp on the last day.
  • Sydney to the Max has since had a Very Special Episode once per season:
    • Season 1: "You've Got Female" (women's rights)
    • Season 2: "Girls II Women" (periods)
    • Season 3: "Do the Write Thing" (microaggressions)
  • Titus started a tradition of having someone else narrate from the neutral space, with Papa Titus taking it for an episode in season two and Erin taking an episode in season three. If they had more seasons they would have continued with Dave and Tommy.
  • Every season and movie of Trailer Park Boys starts with Ricky and Julian getting out of prison, and ends with them going back. This was played with for a few seasons, with Bubbles and other characters also ending up there, and Ricky actually avoided jail at the end of Season 3 (ironically, he was trying to get sent to jail).
    • Any changes to the status quo from the last season will usually be reset by the middle of the next season, occasionally not until the end. Ricky will always end up living in his car, their money will always be gone, Lahey will always end up back as the Trailer Park Supervisor, etc.
    • Lahey will always attempt to quit or control his drinking, but in the end go back to the liquor.
    • The authorities always catch the boys in a compromising position, but Ricky will talk their way out of it, or they'll get away with it via blind luck (excepting the season finale).
    • Ricky's "Shitmobile" loses a part or has some new idiosyncrasy to make it work.
    • One episode will always be centered around some hobby or idea Bubbles wants to do.
  • Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps features the "f-word" only once in each series, always in the series finale.
  • The Coaches' Challenge in The Ultimate Fighter, in which the opposing coaches go head-to-head for $10,000 by playing a different game each season, such as bowling or table hockey, starting with Season 3. The only season this didn't happen was Season 4 "The Comeback," which did not have team coaches.
    • Starting with season 7, the fighters would win their spot in the house with a fight first, narrowing the pool of usually 32 contestants down to 16. Before they were chosen by the producers and Zuffa only without proving themselves. The exceptions were Season 10 (Kimbo Slice was on the show, and the most likely didn't want to have him eliminated before the show started), 15 (shortened season), and 20 (all the fighters were considered the best at their weight class already, and the tournament is for the inaugural Women's Straw Weight Championship).
  • Victorious has an episode in which the main characters get trapped somewhere at least once a season. The first season alone had this happen in three episodes (getting trapped in an RV, being stuck on a plane, and having to stay in the teacher's apartment for an acting exercise).
  • What We Do in the Shadows (2019) gives the Baron a new look for each season in which he appears, for such reasons as Guillermo burning him or the Djinn giving him a makeover.
  • Wheel of Fortune has certain theme weeks that it does every season, such as Big Money Week, Going Green Week, a college week, a Best Friends week, etc.

    Podcasts 
  • Mission to Zyxx has a couple:
    • Pleck's Zima master Papa Derf appears, checks in on Pleck's training, and then dies horribly.
    • The second-to-last episode each season follows someone other than the usual crew.

    Webcomics 
  • Consolers has an E3 comic once a year, parodying the conferences of the different companies.
  • In the webcomic Ozy and Millie, there is a story arc that occurs once a year in which Ozy somehow loses all his fur. This is explained to be because of a family curse that only affects Ozy because he's the only member in the family to actually have fur. It is later explained that the whole curse story was a lie told to him by his father. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • Something*Positive tends to start each year off with an "Old Familiar Faces" arc, featuring the activities of the characters that have dropped Out of Focus.
  • Every now and again between chapters of Star Impact, a spate of Guest Strips will be featured.

    Web Video 
  • The Nostalgia Critic: Besides the annual Halloween Episodes and Christmas Episodes, every year around November since 2010, Critic reviews a series of nostalgic commercials instead of a movie or TV show. During these episodes, he wears his "I [picture of a donut] donuts" shirt instead of his usual suit-jacket and tie to indicate a more relaxed approach.
  • There are multiple staples in Scott The Woz that usually occur once each season, which Scott counts as a year's worth of episodes:
    • As of Season 4, every season has had exactly one episode based around a Sonic game, usually uploaded in August.note 
    • In early March, Scott always uploads a video discussing the Nintendo Switch. All but the first of these videosnote  follow incredibly similar formats.note 
    • Every season except Season 4 has a video covering that year's E3. note  You can also count on at least one video about an older E3 each season; the first two seasons actually had two of these.
    • An April Fools' Day episode (usually one of the rare cases where the Sunday release schedule is almost always broken for reasons unrelated to Schedule Slip, although it fell on Sunday in Season 2).
    • At least one non-game related sketch episode.
    • A review of a Sonic the Hedgehog game. In order, he has reviewed the first game, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Sonic 3 & Knucklesnote , and Sonic 3D Blast.
    • The Season Finale will always be a much longer, higher production values episode than usual, with an actual plot and heavily featuring Scott's friends. Often, but not always, doubles as the Christmas Episode.

    Western Animation 
  • Both seasons of The Addams Family (1992) had an episode involving Uncle Fester's comic book superhero Festerman. Season one's episode was titled simply "Festerman", with the second season's episode being titled "Festerman Returns".
  • American Dad! has a non-canonical Christmas episode every season, as well as non-canonical episodes parodying a film or TV show. Most episodes have the main story focus on Stan or Roger, but there are always a few per season that focus on Steve or Francine as well.
  • Amphibia:
    • For one episode during each season, the ending credits and ending theme would change depending on the mood of the story. Season 1 had "Snow Day", which has an exterior of the Plantar Home with snow falling. Season 2 had the surprisingly emotional driven episode, "Hopping Mall", which had a somber version of "Anne's Theme" to reflect the mood in the final scene.
    • In the last episode of every season, one of the three human girls experiences a Disney Death. In S1, Sasha lets herself fall off the collapsing Toad Tower before Grime saves her. In S2, Marcy was fatally stabbed through the back by Andrias' sword, before he eventually revived her to become the human host for The Core. In S3, Anne uses the power of all three Calamity Gems to destroy The Core for good, costing her own life in the process; she comes back to life when a celestial guardian makes a backup copy of her body and she refuses to take its place in the afterlife.
    • Near the end of each season, the human girls come to a situation where they fight each other. Anne fights Sasha in Seasons 1 and 2, while Sasha fights Marcy possessed by the Core in Season 3.
    • One episode every season also includes an appearance of the mysterious newt Valeriana; "Bizarre Bazaar" in S1, "The Second Temple" in S2, and "The Hardest Thing" in S3.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Starting with season 2, each season of The Backyardigans featured a Two-Part Episode.
  • BoJack Horseman: A character says the "F" word towards the title character, with Word of God saying it signifies when BoJack has done a transgression that has completely soiled that relationship. Season 4 flips the script by having BoJack say it (indirectly) to his elderly mother instead.
  • Each season of The Boondocks will have one episode where Colonel Stinkmeaner (or his allies) appear just to harass or terrorize the Freeman family. In order, they are: "Granddad's Fight" (Season 1), "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back" (Season 2), "Stinkmeaner 3: The Hateocracy" (Season 3), and "Stinkmeaner: Begun the Clone War Has" (Season 4).
  • Codename: Kids Next Door:
    • Each season has a "C.A.K.E.D." episode wherein the KND try to steal the Delightful Children from Down The Lane's birthday cake. The final season has the birthday cake heist woven into the the plot of the series finale, "I.N.T.E.R.V.I.E.W.S", rather than be its own episode.
    • Each season also has an "art episode", which experiments with the usual art style and/or storytelling, from doing a No-Dialogue Episode to a parody of The Second Renaissance. Season 5 didn't have one, so the following season had two to make up for it.
  • Duck Dodgers: Each season had one episode focusing on just Marvin the Martian and K-9 in a common everyday situation. Lampshaded by Dodgers in one of them.
  • After its second revival (its 4th season), Family Guy started to do this with the overly long non sequitur of Peter fighting the giant chicken from the Y2K episode in season 2. After 3 or 4 seasons this was stopped.
  • On Garfield and Friends, there's a meta example. Garfield's friend Floyd the mouse appears in an episode Once A Season and complains about how he's only in the show once a season.
  • Both seasons of Gravity Falls had an episode centered around Time Travel ("The Time Traveler's Pig" and "Blendin's Game"), an episode centered around three shorts ("Bottomless Pit!" and "Little Gift Shop of Horrors"), a Halloween special ("Summerween" and "Little Gift Shop of Horrors," again), an episode where the Monster of the Week was a ghost ("The Inconveniencing" and "Northwest Mansion Mystery"), and an episode where the Monster of the Week was video game-themed ("Fight Fighters" and "Soos and the Real Girl").
  • In The Legend of Korra: Someone calling Korra "the worst Avatar ever".
  • In Littlest Pet Shop (2012), Sugar Sprinkles gets a major role in one episode per season, though in rare instances she will make background appearances outside of those episodes.
  • Miraculous Ladybug is extremely fond of this trope:
    • Each season will always invovle Chloe getting akumatized.note . It is unknown if this element will be broken in season 5.
    • Reakumatizations played a little part in seasons 1 note  and 2 note . The writers exaggerated this element in season 3 when many characters like Lila, Juleka, Kagami, and Max got reakumatized into identities, both old and new, possibly to avoid creating countless new characters. This element returns in season 4.
    • Both seasons 1 and 2 had characters getting akumatized onscreen every episode (minus Sandboy) and Marinette's onscreen transformation as well (except Mayura). Begining in season 3, there would be episodes where both the akumatizations of characters and Marinette's transformation sequence being skipped note , likely to save time. This element will also likely return in season 4 and beyond.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Ninjago: As the show went on, the mailman's appearences dwindled until they became this, which was lampshaded in season eight.
  • Rick and Morty:
    • Season premieres end in the garage.
    • Every eighth episode is an anthology show, Interdimensional Cable or Morty's Mind Blowers.
    • Cameos of fan favorites like Mr. Meeseeks and Gearhead, in the background or otherwise.
    • A variant. Evil Morty has consistently appeared once in every odd season of the show's run.
  • The Simpsons
    • Their annual Treehouse of Horror episodes, starting with season 2. For a stretch in The Noughties the episode would usually air after Halloween (because FOX aired the World Series in October), and as the season premiere (for the same reason).
    • Sideshow Bob comes to commit some crime.
    • They use to have more in the early seasons, such as an Itchy & Scratchy-centered episode, a Santa's Little Helper-centered episode, etc.
    • Starting with season 23, the show would feature a guest Couch Gag created by Bill Plympton. So far, season 26 is the only season since then not to feature one.
  • South Park has been killing Kenny Once a Season from Season 7 onward, as opposed to during the first five seasons where the practice was inverted by killing him Once an Episode and instead had it so that he survived one episode every season. They've also had at least one episode focusing on Jimmy Valmer a season since his introduction in Season 5.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
    • Ahsoka Tano had one Designated Girl Fight in each season:
    • Cad Bane also showed up for one story arc each season through Season 4.
    • Most seasons have at least one Indiana Jones reference:
    • Wolffe's armor changes in some way each season. The exceptions are seasons five and seven, though he doesn't appear at all in the latter.
      • Season 1: Republic Navy uniform
      • Season 2: Phase One armor with light blue wolf patterns. He also lost an eye between seasons
      • Season 3: Wolf pattern on helmet is inverted, color changes to dark gray
      • Season 4: Change to Phase Two armor
      • Season 6: Specialized desert armor
  • Star Wars Rebels: Several of these elements were not repeated in Season 4 due to its different pacing and tone.
  • Each season of Teen Titans had one episode where things would go even zanier than normal. While most episodes had a somewhat serious plotline with a strong focus on characterization, these episodes would just toss all that aside and throw in as much surreal, nonsensical humor as they could.
    • Season 4 had two of these types of episodes.
    • Notably, these episodes usually show up before two or three part season finales, acting as a breather episode before things got REALLY dark.
  • From Total Drama and its spin-off:
  • Every season of Transformers: Animated has one episode that features The Bounty Hunter Lockdown. Similarly, the Headmaster is the only human supervillain to appear in all three seasons. He takes over a different Cybertronian's body in each episode.
  • Each season finale of Winx Clubnote , has involved a kissing scene.
    • Bloom/Sky, twice (in The Witches Downfall from season 1 and The Phoenix Revealed from season 2)
    • Nabu/Ashia in A New Beginning from season 3
    • Musa/Riven, twice (in The Pheonix Revealed from season 2 and Ice and Fire from season 4)
    • Morgana/Klaus note  in Ice and Fire from season 4
    • Daphne/Thoren in Winx Forever from season 6.
  • The Magic School Bus: Arnold's cousin Janet shows up once a season to cause problems for Ms. Frizzle's class.

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